Ghawar Oil Field

Summary Information

• Operator: Saudi Aramco
• Country: Saudi Arabia
• Location: 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the city of Dhahran
• Production start:
• Partners:
• Type: Oil
• Estimated Reserves: 48.25 billion barrels of liquids
• Production Volume: 3.8mbpd (2018)

Description

• Discovered in 1948, Ghawar is the world's biggest oil field
• The northern-most portion of the Ghawar field lies approximately 100 kilometres west of Dhahran.
• The field comprises six main areas (Fazran, Ain Dar, Shedgum, ‘Uthmaniyah, Hawiyah and Haradh) and extends southward over more than 200 kilometres as one long continuous anticline.
• It is approximately 36 kilometres across at its widest point (where the Ain Dar and Shedgum areas run in parallel and are 26 kilometres and 10 kilometres wide, respectively), stretching 174 miles in length and 16 miles across to encompass 1.3 million acres
• Gas produced at the field is sent to the Hawiyah Gas Processing Plant and oil to the Abqaiq Oil Processing Plant
• It produces a range of crude grades including Arabian Light Crude Oil

Contractors

• **Halliburton:** Provision of drilling rigs, directional and horizontal drilling, logging while drilling, cementing, mud engineering, wireline logging, completion, perforating, and other well construction activities, including engineering and management of the entire drilling operations

History

• 1948 - Ghawar Oil Field discovered
• 2009 - Halliburton awarded the integrated turnkey drilling contract in South Ghawar
• 2023 - First shale gas produced at South Ghawar

Geology

• The producing oil reservoir at Ghawar is the late Jurassic Arab-D limestone, which is about 280 feet thick and occurs 6,000-7,000 feet beneath the surface

Links

1. The Elephant of All Elephants
2. Halliburton Awarded Integrated Turnkey Drilling Contract For South Ghawar
3. Aramco produces first unconventional tight gas at South Ghawar